Comments

hooray99

When the questions got tough at the board meeting, one board members tries to turn the tables on the parents and taxpayers asking "Where have you all been." He said they are not hiding, but they are hiding behind "legal counsel." Who wants to go to these meetings when you never get answers to your questions. And you feel like your concerns are not taken into consideration. The boe has their agenda and they just vote that through. It's a waste of your time. District residents elect the boe members to do the schools business. I would ask the board, WHERE WERE YOU when all this crap was going down in our school district. Where were you.....

Captain

notalways: I thought the same thing. I wasn't aware that high-ranking school administrators are unionized, but around here, it's always good to blame a union whether one is involved or not.

I'd also like to point out that reg teachers DON'T enter into multi-year contracts, therefore, separation agreements are much less common. Depending on the circumstances, if a teacher is accused of a terminable offense, a confidentiality clause may be offered to induce him/her to resign, but a yrs salary (or more) is generally NOT the norm.

CassadagaHiker

OK.....This guy just received a 4 year contract for roughly $138,000/year. That’s over a$500,000 payout to resign. Wow. I believe she was around $80,000/year. Who knows how long that will be paid out for. It would be interesting if these two were an item mutually and came up with this exit strategy. I’m sure that could never happen however. People in this area are wayyyy to smart to let someone pull one like that on them. LOL. If she was a victim in the purest sense, I feel bad for her and her pure image being soiled. Apparently we’ll never know what really happened. But you can guarantee we're going to pay for it. For many years to come. Good thing they closed that school. Now they can afford to make this to go away.

notalways

Civil Service Law does not always mean union. Why do you try to make this a union issue when this is a management position? Remember who writes these laws that protect. Big bosses and managers get paid off to leave quietly, everyday workers just get to leave.

Captain

FedUpTaxpayer: Let's be clear; I DON'T know for certain whether Smith got his full salary for the remainder of his contract or not (3+ yrs). What I/we do know is the BOE refuses to disclose this info. How anyone can believe that telling taxpayers what this separation agreement is costing them would be deemed a violation of the confidentiality clause is beyond absurd!

Bernie Madoff should've moved here! He would've cleaned up with such a gullible bunch like Dcron and others who actually believe confidentiality applies to taxpayers costs. "Yep, you people are paying, and you might even be shocked if you knew how much, but sorry, we can't tell you, we're bound to secrecy." HAHAHA!

localresident

Proof positive that more superintendents and more principals do not equal better education. And possibly an argument for distanced learning since teachers might not be keeping their hands to themselves....

FedUpTaxpayer

So let me get this straight. The school board closed the Cassadaga Elementary School to save around 400 grand. If Captain is correct, Smith was paid his full salary per his multi year contract, which is around 400 grand, or $100,000.00 per month. Sounds like the taxpayers really got a hosing this time.

Captain

This ain't the first time Dcron has used warped logic to conclude how she feels school personnel costs "should be" measured. She minimizes costs, then offers intentionally deceiving & unrelated comparisons in an attempt to support her own delusions.

Remember this one?; "the avg teacher earns $1.50/hr per student."

Now she equates this buyout to; "...less than a F/T minimum wage worker."

rosebud

Funny lesson to teach, do wrong & you will get paid a lot of money to do it.. Back room deals never pay off for HONEST people. You must get rid of these unions that protect wrong doers. Let the light shine in. Hard to hide in the sunlight.

CKP5600

Dcronlg “its a publicly disclosed FACT that 75% of CVCS' budget comes from outside the district. So those $85K/yr teachers? You're only directly paying $22,000/yr”

Yes the money comes from other places then the district taxes, but in that context you should be just as ****** off as the residents of the school district that the wages are that high.

Where do you think the money comes? Does it just appear out of thin air?

From your tax dollars that is where. Every time you buy something and pay sales tax or buy a lottery ticket this where the money comes from to pay these outrageous wages, so it is you and everyone else that are paying these wages Why aren't you outraged at this?

instigator

bob1957

REally, zactly what I expected from CVCS residents-zactly. One blog: "I don't care what..." No you don't you just said so and you will when the district has a huge legal bill and long drawn out law suit for violating confidentially and NYS education law; but, then again, you don't care. Then a personal attack on a Board Member, you don't show up to volunteer for the Board but seem more than willing to slam someone who shows up every month and volunteer to try to keep the district going. Nice words hatter! Let's focus on NYS Civil Service Law and NYS Education Law it is clear in case law, statute and regulations of the commissioners that revealing a personnel matter publically is a violation of law and actionable ( you can be sued and or because you violated the law The Commissioner of Education can take administrative action against you for removal either as a Board member, attorney for the district or any school officer. The Board has done the right thing and done it well.

Dcronlg

First, the lawyers are looking out for the district's best interests -- that's why you hired lawyers -- to protect you. If the lawyers tell you to shut up and not say anything, then you wisely shut up and let wholly unsophisticated folks like Captain wail away all they what to. Unless you have millions of dollars to pay for a legal fught Captain -- you have ZERO idea what you're talking about.

Second -- its a publicly disclosed FACT that 75% of CVCS' budget comes from outside the district. So those $85K/yr teachers? You're only directly paying $22,000/yr -- BIG DEAL!! That's less than a full time minimum wage worker.

MrBear

Christy is an arrogant individual. Where has everyone been? Doesn't matter buddy. They are there now and you answer to them. Obviously this Board doesn't understand that concept. You would think with the high school taxes these people pay they would have dragged that idiot out of the meeting by his feet.

Captain

The BOE makes a deal that will collectively cost district taxpayers a significant amt of money (if Smith was indeed given his full salary that remained on his contract; 3+ yrs) not to mention the "indefinite" paid leave of absence for Ms DiDe, and the BOE says it's legally bound from disclosing this amt???

notalways

Why is it OK to allow someone the oppertunity to leave, get money and never have to answer to the people who pay him? Why is it OK to hide the truth about what happened and what it cost? Not only is this unfair to the people of this district, it is unfair to the next one he goes to. How many times do we see this. Lawyers are so concerned that they pay off and move on the problem so it can happen over and over again. Maybe the people of this district need to file a Freedom of Information Request or ask a news agency to get involved.

Captain

I don't see how withholding the allegations against Smith violates any confidentiality clause since he was never formally charged or found guilty of anything. And I don't give a rat's *** what he did. The BOE is merely hiding behind "legal advice" as a weak excuse to not disclose how much the separation agreement cost. I don't care what the attys "allegedly" advised, this is absolutely wrong and illegal!

This "hush" clause is typical for matters like this. The intent is to not hinder the accused from finding a new job, and not having to disclose to a new employer that he was in fact asked to resign. This clause helps in him that respect. The BOE's main goal was to remove Smith ASAP. I strongly disagree with compensating ANYONE who is accused of committing a terminable offense. If the evidence is strong, I might agree to keep it confidential, but only if he agreed to resign, and that's it.